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A university don, Dr. Oluwadare Ojo, has explained reasons that can make police officer to arrest with or without warrant.
Dr. Ojo, a lecturer at the Institute of Security, Nigeria, University of Lagos (UNILAG), said at a launch of a book, titled, “Functional Police Memo” in Ilorin on Thursday that a police officer could arrest without warrant if an offence was committed in his presence.
The book was written by the retiring Kwara state Police Commissioner, Ebunoluwarotim Adelesi.
Ojo, who was the facilitator/reviewer of the book, explained that, “the authority given to a police officer to arrest a person who commits an offence in his presence shall be exercisable in respect of offences committed in such officers’ presence notwithstanding that the written law creating the offence provides the offence that the offender cannot be arrested without warrant.
“From the above, a police officer may arrest a person without a warrant for committing misdemeanour or gross misdemeanour only when offence is committed in the presence of him/her.
“In addition to this, a police officer can arrest without warrant when a wanted criminal/suspect is found.
“Just like police officers, a private person can arrest any person without a warrant, where a private person has a reasonable support of a person in the commission of an offence, he can arrest and handover the suspect to the police or take him to the police station”.
Continuing, the security expert said that “arrest and detainment of a suspect by the police and other law enforcement agencies in Nigeria do not stop suspects of their rights.
“There are constitutionally protected rights of every suspect in police custody which should not be violated or breached.
“A suspect shall not be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment while in police custody”.
In his remarks, Mrs. Adelesi hinted that the security challenges she experienced necessitated her decision to write the book.
She said that the journey of securing the state as the police chief had been daunting.
“I must make this categorical statement that the journey has not been so smooth, especially, when the challenges are skyrocketing. I am glad that as experienced officer, I was prepared for the task”, she said.
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